Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1887-06-17
THE TAX ON TOBACCO.

Reports of an extra session of
Congress are not so numerous nor
so confident as they were a few
weeks 90. No extra session is pos
sible unless the President calls one,
and he has thus far shown an IN.
Willingness to do so. The TumOrs
of RandalPs activity among the
Southern representatives will not
incline him favorably towards the
scheme. Mr.. Randall, it is alleged,
has devoted himself, since the
adjournment of the Forty-ninth
Congress, to PROSECUTING, and has
succeeded beyond his utmost hopes.
His plan for the reduction of the
surplus includes the abolition of
the tax on tobacco and certain liz
nor taxes, which, with a few items
in the tariff acknowledged by both
parties to be iujudicious, would be
about as far as it is safe to 90 in
experimental depletion.
Randalps plan will not commend
itself to the President, still less will
1t meet with the approval of the an
ti.tariff men, who constitute the ma.
jority ofthe Democrats in Congress,
and a fight would be precipitated at
the opening of an extra session
which would last through the win
ter and spring, and interject itself
into the presidential campaign, I'M
less by some legislative coup the
Republicans came to the rescue of
the Randall men, or the imperative
demands of the people silenced the
cOmbatants.
The attempt to abolish the liquor
taxes will probable evoke an cutlery
from the temperance people in all
parts of the country, and will meet
with determined opposition in Con-
gress from men Of both parties (;
but if the question is approached
without prejudice there can scarce
~ be two opinions about the poll
cy and Justice of removing the tax
on tobacco. 1t is un-American in
character and a burden upon a le-
gitimate and perfectly harmless in
dustry. Tobacco has become al
most as much a necessity to the
laboring man as the bread he eats
or the clothes he wears. Its use IS
so general as to be almost univer-
sal, and the injury arising from its
abuse is little more than that oc-
casioned by overeating or immOd-
crate use of any of the needs and
appliances of life. The tobacco
crop furnishes the subsistence of a
number of worthy people in many
states widely separated from each
other. It's manufacture and manip.
ulation provide for still greater
number in the various cities of the
country. The tax is q burden to
both the producer and the consum-
er. 1t reduces the income of the
former and enhances the price to
the latter. The poor people who
use tobacco are the greatest suffer
ers. They are compelled to buy
the article in small packages
Manufacturers will not put their
best brands in small packages, be-
cause when the stamp required by
the tax is put on, they cannot
charge a price for the article which
would pay them. 'fhe poor are
thus forced to buy inferior tobacco J
so bad, indeed, that very often they
pay more for the stamp on the pack
age than for the tobacco which it
covers.
The tax is essentially un.Ameri-
can in character, and an outgrowth
of the war. 1t is direct tax, and
there ought to be no direct tax
upon the people in q great and pro
gressive country like ours. The
luXuries which pour INTO our pOrIs
from abroad, and the articles i'm
ported, the counterpart Of which we
ourselves are able to manufacture,
ought to furnish all the revenue
needed by the government for gen
erations to come. 1t is sumptuary
in it's nature. 1t places burden
some restrictions on the producers.
Under the law, as it now stands, a
tobacco planter is granted the priv
ilege of selling 800 worth of his
crop to whom he pleases, but all
beyond that must pass through the
hands OF middle men and be sub
iect to their taxes as well as those
of the government. Until the law
was modified by the Forty.eigth
Congress, even this poor boon was
denied him. The abolition Of the
tobacco tax would reduce the sur
plus by s2S,OOO,OO amer.
lean.